This invention relates, in general, to microprocessors, and more particularly, to those microprocessors on a single integrated circuit chip having the capability of performing multiply and divide routines.
Digital computer systems have performed multiply and divide routines in the past, however, the implementation of multiply and divide instructions in the logic system of a computer is quite complex. In many of the smaller, lower cost computer systems, multiply and divide instructions are not provided. This leaves it up to the user to program subroutines to perform these operations if they are required. These subroutines can be rather lengthy.
Microprocessors are generally manufactured on a single integrated circuit chip and are accordingly rather small digital computer systems which do not commonly include a multiply or divide instruction in their list of instructions. If a user has a large enough memory, and time is not a factor, the user can program subroutines to perform the multiply and divide routines. In some cases, a user has added peripheral multiplier arrays to work in conjunction with a microprocessor chip to implement fast multiply instructions, however, this requires additional hardware and interconnections.